The League of Nations and International Peace Flashcards

1
Q

Who was the League of Nations created by?

A

Woodrow Wilson

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2
Q

What enforced the League of Nations?

A

The Treaty of Versailles

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3
Q

What were the aims of the LoN?

A
  • stop wars
  • encourage disarmament
  • to make the world a better place by improving people’s working conditions and tackling disease
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4
Q

How was the LoN organised?

A
  • an assembly which met annually + a council which met regularly to consider crisis
  • Court of International Justice
  • Committees such as International Labour Organisation + Health commitee for humanitarian work
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5
Q

What were the strengths of the League of Nations?

A
  • to enforce its will, could offer: arbitration through International Court of Justice or apply trade sanctions against countries that went to war
  • 58 members by 1930s
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6
Q

What were the weaknesses of LoN?

A
  • set up by toV which everty nation hated
  • aims too ambitious
  • Germany, Russia and USA not members
  • no army
  • complicated organisation
  • decisions to be unanimous
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7
Q

What were the successes of the LoN?

A
  • 1920: League took home half a million prisoners of war from WW1
  • 1921: Sweden and Finland accepted the League’s arbitration to give the Aaland Islands to Finland
  • the League sent doctors to the Turkish refugee camp
  • sent financial advisors to Austria and Hungary to rebuild their economies when they went bankrupt in 1921
  • 1920s: set free 200,000 slaves from Sierra Leonne
  • 1925: Greece obeyed the League’s orders to pull out of Bulgaria in 1925
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8
Q

What were the failures of the League?

A

-1921: Poland refused to withdraw from the capital of Lithuania - Vilna, which is what the League instructed them to do. The League could not do anything to combat the refusal
- 1923: Mussolini ignored League’s orders to pull out of Corfu, and made Greece pay Italy (the clear aggresors) money
- 1932: Japan conquered Manchuria. The League objected but were still powerless. Japan left the LoN
- 1932: Hitler announced that Germany was leaving the LoN
- 1935: Italy invaded Abysinnia, League officially condemned Italians, but France and Britain were caught making a secret agreement with Italy

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9
Q

What were the causes of the Manchuria crisis?

A
  • Japanese economy in decline due to the Great Depression: no one was buying silk (their main export)
  • military leaders and business owners called for military expansion to strengthen the country
  • and to boost morale
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10
Q

Why was Manchuria an ideal option for the Japanese to invade?

A
  • geographically close to Japan
  • Japan already had industry and railway there
  • history of confusion as to who owned Manchuria: China, Japan or Russia
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11
Q

When did the Manchuria crisis occur?

A

1931

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12
Q

Describe what happened during the Manchuria crisis

A
  1. 1905: Jp controls South Manchurian Railway
  2. September 1931: uses a railway explosion as an excuse to capture Mukden + take over Manchuria
  3. Japanese pretended to give them independence by establishing a puppet leader so they could control Manchuria
  4. LoN sent Lord Lytton to assess the situation and produce a report, which said that the Japanese were in the wrong and the league didn’t react to this, failed to stop the crisis
  5. Japan refused Lord Lytton’s report, left the LoN in 1933. Japan invaded China’s Jehol province
  6. 1936: Japan signed a treaty with Germany and invaded China freely in 1937
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13
Q

What were the consequences of the Manchuria crisis for the League of Nations?

A
  • one of the League’s own members had ignored its moral condemnation and instructions to withdraw. Without an army, the LoN was powerless
  • Japan was an important trading partner for many countries, making them reluctant to put sanctions/ stop selling weapons. This suggested that countries wouldn’t support the League if it was against their best interests. This was worsened by the Depression as countries wanted to focus on their own economies
  • Countries unwilling to take military action: unpopular and expensive
  • League’s failure to at showed dictators like Hitler the obvious weaknesses of the League
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14
Q

What were the causes of the Abyssinian Crisis?

A
  • italy had been defeated by Abyssinia in 1896 - Italians wanted revenge
  • Success would divert people’s attention from the depression and boost Mussolini’s popularity
  • Mussolini dreamed of making Italy a great empire again, and had seen Japan succeed in Manchuria in 1931. This gave him more confidence to attack Abyssinia
  • natural resources abundant in Abyssinia
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15
Q

When did Abyssinia defeat Italy previously?

A

1896

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16
Q

Who was the Italian leader during the Abyssinian Crisis?

A

Mussolini

17
Q

What occured during the Abyssinian Crisis?

A
  1. October 1935: Mussolini sent troops with heavy artillery and tanks to invade Abyssinia
  2. Haile Selassie, the Abyssinian leader, appealed directly to the LoN
  3. LoN imposed economic sanctions, but delayed banning oil, in case US didn’t support them
  4. Britain and France didn’t close the Suez Canal to the Italians - so supplies got through despite sanctions
  5. December 1935: News leaked about the Hoare-Laval Pact, which was a secret plan made by Britain’s foreign secretary and France’s prime minister to give Abyssinia to Italy
  6. May 1936: Italy had conquered all of Abyssinia
18
Q

Why didn’t Britain and France close the Suez Canal during the Abyssinia crisis?

A

They wanted to become allies with Italy and didn’t want to upset Mussolini, so that he would back them when Hitler attacked

19
Q

What was the stresa pact?

A

A pact made between France, Britain and Italy, agreeing to see Germany as the common enemy

20
Q

What were the consequences of the Abyssinian Crisis?

A
  • Members of the League didn’t want to go to war with Italy, as Hitler’s power was increasing and Britain and France wanted to save resources to go against him
  • Hoare Laval pact caused public outrage, as this proved that members of the League were willing to undermine it for their own interests
  • This ruined the League’s reputation
  • the Covenant had been ignored and it was falling apart
21
Q

Why did the League of Nations fail?

A
  • USA refused to join the league
  • no military, reliance on moral condemnation and trade sanctions, which weren’t as effective because USA can still trade with countries that this was imposed upon
  • League’s structure was complicated and they only met once a year. Decisions also had to be unanimous, which slowed down the whole process
  • League was unrealistically ambitious and had no plan to ensure success
  • Depression allowed for the rise of extremist dictators, such as Hitler and Mussolini, who sought glory and conquest
22
Q

What were the trigger causes of the fall of the League of Nations?

A

The Manchuria Crisis and the Abyssinia Crisis

23
Q

What were the locarno treaties?

A
  • Germany, France and Belgium agreed to respect their post-Versailles borders
  • Germany agreed with Poland and Czechoslovakia to settle any border disputes peacefully
  • Germany had previously complained bitterly about their loss of territory.
24
Q

When were the locarno treaties signed?

A

1925

25
Q

What was the Kellog-Briand pact?

A

Germany was one of 62 countries that signed up to this agreement, which committed its signatories to settling disputes between them peacefully.

26
Q

When was the Kellog-Briand pact signed?

A

1928